Flowers On a Grave
by kc78
Summary: Mike experiences a heart attack while at a Cemetery. During his attack, he has an out of body experience. Set after S3 & Complete.
1. Ghost Of The Past

_Author's Note: So I left it open ended because I like where it's ends in chapter 3 but wanted to keep an open mind for a future story. But it is Complete! The idea came from watching Las Vegas TV show where they did Ghosts of Christmas. This my weirdo un-christmas related version of that so please be kind with your reviews._

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Mike stopped before the headstone, he knew it was silly to fork out the money for a slab of stone given there was nothing buried beneath. It was an empty grave but he'd needed something, he had needed something to mark their existence, the loss of their life.

He knelt down and brushed the autumn leaves off the stone, the names revealing themselves. 'Slattery' read at the top while it listed his wife Christine, his children Hannah, Courtney and Lucas. He'd finally found out what had happened to his wife and daughters. They had died from the virus.

The immunes had infected their camp, when the symptoms of the first victim showed- well it was too late for the rest. It had taken three investigators and every spare moment Mike had away from the ship to find this information out. They had been cremated, their ashes lost in a pile of many. No bodies to bury, no physical form for him to farewell, only a piece of paper that read 'Christine Ann Slattery, found deceased with two children; names unknown.'

He moved the dried up bouquet from his last visit to the side; replacing them with a fresh one. He pressed a palm to the cold stone. "I miss you all so much." He told them in a hushed voice, pain laced through his chest as he felt so painfully hollowed out. He wished he could feel something more than the deadened feeling inside.

The days passed slowly, he just kept going with the flow but he'd lost the passion of life, he'd lost the ability to smile, some days he wondered if he was really still alive as he couldn't feel his own heart beat. But he knew the truth, he was just as dead as his family. His throat ached and tears filled his eyes.

He closed them, letting the tears fall; he was alone in a graveyard. The caretaker a few yards away wouldn't notice. Thoughts of his children and wife brought fresh pain and grief to the surface. He wanted to be able to say something but the words would not come out. The pain was so great, he pressed a hand to his chest and tried to breathe but instead fell to the ground.

The next moment, he was standing over his own body in confusion. He watched as himself cry out in pain, the caretaker must have heard him as he came running.

"It's not as dramatic as the TV shows, where is the music and the montage of activity?"

Mike turned to find Christine at his side, he looked back to where he was laying on the ground and then to her again. His brain couldn't compute.

"I know, it's confusing." Christine told him sympathetically as if this happened to everyone.

"What's going on here? Am I dead?" he asked part of him didn't care as she was here. She was here beside him and all he could think was how much he'd missed her. How beautiful she looked, it was like no time had passed for her, in fact she looked just the way she had when he'd kissed her goodbye before leaving on the Nathan James for the Arctic mission.

"Oh no," she shook her head. "But you're dying right now, broken heart. If you live, they'll tell you it was a mild myocardial infarction. Right now it's all in the air as it were." Christine added in such a jovial and conversational manner like they were talking about breakfast options not his life.

"What?" he asked confused by everything that was happening.

"Heart attack, you've been killing yourself with grief and work. So don't pretend you didn't see this happening. Let's walk. We don't need to watch this." Christine said, she took his hand in hers and pulled him to follow.

"But-" he didn't finish the question as he wanted to follow her instead. He let her pull him away as he could physical feel her hand in his. They walked hand in hand through the cemetery. It was so surreal to see her so alive and well.

"You've gotten old." She teased him.

"You died." He retorted, she gave him a soft smile and chuckled.

"I did," She agreed, there was no argument or delusion to this.

"Where are the kids?" Mike asked her, if he was in some kind of limbo, then he wanted to see them. She stopped walking and turned to him with a sad smile.

"Happy and safe, they miss you, they are sad they couldn't be here but there was only so much time and you know how good they are at distracting us." She said to him the sadness evaporating from her smile, turning it warm. Mike wrapped his arms around her, relishing the physical contact even though it wasn't real.

"So why are you here?" he asked her.

"Think of me as the Ghost of your Past. This is your spiritual intervention." Christine told him as she ran her hands down his arms. She chuckled at her own joke or maybe at him as he was gobsmacked.

"You're my present-" Mike started to argue but she cut him off.

"No, we had our time and it was beautiful. I will always treasure it, always but it's over." She said looking up at him.

"I don't want it to be over." He told her, his heart aching for the future stolen from him and his family.

"I know, it's why you're lying on the ground over there. But Mike, I want you to live, I want you to be happy, your life is not over." She told him.

"Maybe I want it to be. Maybe I want to give it up." He told her, part of him was telling the truth and there was relief in admitting it. But she just shook her head.

"That's not who you are, that isn't the man I married and made three beautiful children with." She said.

"You're all gone, I'm alone." Mike said painfully. Tears filled her eyes as she shook her head again.

"No, you're not. You never have been because we are still with you; in here." she placed a hand on his chest over his heart. "You take us everywhere you go, and we want you move on and be happy." She told him, she pulled out of his arms and took his hand again.

"I don't think I can." Mike said as he followed her.

"You can, I know you can." She assured him. Mike heard the slam of door behind them and turned to see the doors an ambulance close. He turned to Christine but she was gone, instead he found himself holding hands with Tom.


	2. Ghost Of The Present

"What?" Mike said confused as the ambulance took off sirens wailing. But here he was with Tom, still holding hands.

"I didn't think we were at this stage in our relationship." Tom deadpanned as he too looked down at their entwined hands. Mike yanked his hand out Tom's and tried to find out where Christine was.

"She had to go," Tom said reading Mike's mind but then Mike reminded himself this had to be a dream or hallucination.

"So you are?" Mike stated as he was losing his mind.

"If I go off of Christine's theme then I'm the Ghost of your Present. Though why I'm wearing this, makes think you're more far gone that I thought." Tom said as he gestured to himself, he was short shorts, flip flops and an ugly Hawaiian button down shirt. He'd grown a beard and his hair was a little longer and curlier than the last time Mike had seen him.

"You're not dead." Mike stated.

"How do you know? When was the last time you called me?" Tom asked.

"The phone works both ways." Mike said as he wasn't going to comment on his friend's wardrobe choices. But Magnum P.I. reject came to mind.

"True." Tom conceded, in the blink of an eye; they were standing in a room that faced into a CT machine room. Mike peered through the glass and realised he was laying on the bed being scanned. He wasn't dead yet. He didn't know whether to be relieved or not.

"So I'm not dead." Mike stated as his heart monitor chirped a steady heart beat.

"The cemetery wasn't working for me. I also needed to make sure you were ok." Tom said, he leaned over the shoulders of the doctors looking at the scans of Mike's heart. T

"It's nice to see you got pants on now." Mike said as Tom was wearing pants but the rest of him remained the same.

"You picked my outfit." Tom told him.

"No, I didn't." Mike argued.

"Whatever you have to tell yourself. Come take a look, it's your CT Scan." Tom said pointing to the screen. "It's pretty interesting." He remarked.

"Looks like everything is in good shape." One the doctor's said looking at the screen.

"I concur." The other concurred. They were completely unaware to Mike and Tom's presence.

"See, your heart is healthy for an old guy." Tom said as he straightened up and looked to Mike with a smile. Mike tried to remember when he'd last seen Tom smile. It had to be a while.

"Like you can talk, old man. for the record, I'm not that much older than you. So why don't you just give me your stupid message so I get to dying or whatever I'm doing." Mike said as he didn't really understand. Tom just smiled at him, like he knew everything but was too much of an asshole to share it.

"Do you really want advice from me? I'm in the middle of my own emotional crises." Tom scoffed.

"Then why are you here?" Mike asked him.

"Your brain, your hallucination. I'm glad I'm wearing pants as short shorts are a little too chilly for St Louis this time of year." he told him.

"I'll keep that in mind next time I hallucinate you, though I'd prefer Christine over you. No offence." Mike told him.

"None taken. But she's right, you need to let go of the pain that you've been carrying." Tom told him.

"I don't know how to do that." Mike said growing morose, Tom shared his expression.

"It's hard, but really it's about letting go of what you'd expected for your family. You can't change what happened to your family, you can't blame yourself for their deaths. You had no control over their fate just as you had no control over me when I walked away." Tom said in a matter of fact tone.

"I could have told you to stay. I should've told you that we share the burden of the command. That it wasn't all on you. We could have worked through it together. " Mike said, saying what he wished he had that night on the bridge. Tom wore a kind smile as they both knew the truth of each other.

"But you know me well enough to know that if I had stayed, there was a good chance I'd have eaten my side arm within six months." Tom said plainly.

"That's not you." Mike told him, firmly. Tom gave a shrug.

"Maybe, maybe not. We all have our limits and when we're desperate enough to escape..." Tom paused, his own inner demons coming to light but he pushed on. "It's why we got to learn to let go, to let go because it's healthier than holding onto all the pain and grief. You're going to carry that with you for the rest of your life. But how you handle it is up to you, buddy this isn't healthy. You're drowning in it instead of asking for help, reaching out." Tom told him.

"Gee, thanks." Mike said.

"Truth hurts, you've spent the last three years not being ok, pretending you were fine after every loss we suffered. It's time to acknowledge that pain and not let it kill you." Tom told him.

"Easier said than done." Mike replied and they both shared a look. Again, they both knew the truth, they weren't good at letting go of things and they knew how to punish themselves when they felt they were at fault. That they somehow deserved this.

"I know, but maybe this is a wake up call. Time for you to take a break-"

"Go on some kind of 'Eat, Pray, Love' adventure?" Mike asked snidely. Tom grinned and gave another infuriating shrug.

"Whatever works for you. The point is that it's time for you to be happy, to not feel guilty when you do feel happy again. Also call me, we both know I'm an asshole who's got his head stuck up his ass. I'm going to take years to call you. But the reality is, I miss you too. I need a friend like you do in these hours." Tom told him.

Mike closed his eyes for just a moment, to let Tom's words sink in only to feel something thump his legs. When he woke up he was in a hospital bed. The 'thing' that had hit his legs was a little girl with red wavy hair pulled into two pigtails dressed in a purple fairy costume.

"Hi Daddy!" she said with a grin showing off two missing front teeth. She threw her hands up in to the air and the wand she'd been carrying fell the floor with a thud.


	3. Ghost Of The Future

"Oops." She giggled bashfully as she realised her over excitement was too much for him and for dropping her wand.

Mike stared at the little girl as she looked to where her wand fell. She obviously decided it wasn't worth picking up as she climbed into his lap and looked at him expectantly.

"I think you have the wrong room." he told her.

"Nuh Uh, I'm yours. They said that you might have bumped your heart and forgot me. But I think you know me, I'm too cute to forget." she told him not upset in the least at him. If anything she looked amused like this was game.

"I'm hallucinating. You're a hallucination." He said as he realised this was just an extension of the weird day he was having. The little girl frowned at him.

"What's Halla-Hallucy-" She tried to say the word but kept tripping up.

"Hallicination, you're not real, my brain is making you up and I'm explaining to a hallucination what she is." Mike said as he shook his head.

"I am real Daddy, though I don't think the baby is real. You and Mommy says it's real but if I can't see it, then it must be a hallas-"

"Hallucination, do you have a name?" he asked her, ignoring the cute ramble as it was real. It couldn't be real and he wasn't going to get trapped into it.

"I'm Alicia, you and Mummy named me after Aunty Alisha cause if it wasn't for her then I wouldn't exist." She said with such an innocent smile.

"I don't want to know the story." Mike told her as he closed his eyes and groaned at the oddity he was experiencing.

"Well, I don't know either, cause Mommy says I'm not old enough to know." Alicia told him in a matter of fact tone. Mike opened his eyes and saw Alicia's youthful ignorance.

"So you're the Ghost of my Future?" He asked her wryly.

"I'm not a ghost, I'm just visiting here until it's time to go." She said scratching her head as she was confused by the question but somehow still found an answer.

"Great, what message do you have for me? Going to tell me I need to let go and be a happier person? That I gotta stop being a such a sad as- as eeyore?" He asked, he inwardly groaned that he was correcting his language for a kid that didn't exist. She frowned thoughtfully.

"Aren't you happy?" she asked him.

"You're in my head. What do you think?" Mike asked her. She made a face like she didn't believe him.

"No I'm not in your head. Your head is there. I'm sitting here." She gestured to his head and where she was sitting as she took his question literally. "But I do want to tell you something. It's a secret." She told him, he gave a nod and she climbed up until she was right by his ear.

"Everything is going to be ok." She whispered in his ear. He didn't know why but the simple words said by the little girl brought tears to his eyes. But it wasn't sadness of anger he felt, but just relief; relief that maybe she was right.

He turned to her and she smiled. "That's it?" he asked her, she nodded but then stopped as the sound of footfalls sounded in the hallway. They both looked to the doorway, to see Andrea appear. She looked worried, but upon seeing him awake; relief washed through her features.

"Mommy!" Alicia squealed with pure joy as Andrea moved to his bedside.

"Huh?" Mike said in disbelief as he looked between Alicia and Andrea seeing the familial similarities between the two. His brain making connection he wasn't sure he was ready for.

"She looks upset, you should tell her she looks pretty and you love her heaps. She likes that." Alicia told him as she hopped off the bed.

"Where?" Mike started to ask where Alicia was going but Andrea answered the question assuming it was for her.

"You're in the hospital, but you're going to be ok." Andrea told him, but Mike was watching Alicia as she picked up her wand from the floor and grinned at him.

"I gotta go Daddy, it's fairy time and I gots to save the kingdom from the baddies. " Alicia said and she ducked under the bed. Mike tried to lean over to see where she'd gone but Andrea gently pushed him back.

"Whoa, you're not going anywhere until the docs clear you." Andrea told him.

"Did you see a kid in here?" Mike asked Andrea.

"No, are you ok?" Andrea asked him with a frown.

"Yeah, I will be." He said even though he was largely unsure, he looked to Andrea for some reason he felt a sense of contentment wash through him. This was real, he wasn't dead and the pain he'd felt at the cemetery was gone for most part. "What are you doing here?" he asked her.

"I'm your next of kin, remember?" she asked him.

"Yeah, sorry, just feeling a little off balance." Mike said as he scrubbed a hand down his face.

"The doctors assure me you have the healthiest heart they've ever seen in a man of your age." Andrea said teasingly. Mike frowned.

"What is it with everyone and my age? I'm not that old." Mike grouched. Andrea laughed.

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The End.


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